Dockyard operator Babcock International Group plc is likely to keep staffing numbers at around the 5,000 mark even though it is making 10 per cent of its workers redundant, union chiefs say.

The engineering giant has announced it is in talks with unions over plans to shed 500 staff, understood to be mostly in management and technical roles.

But with the company saying it is necessary to make the business “more agile and flexible” union chiefs have stressed they expect packages offered will be attractive to older members of the workforce and will draw volunteers.

And they also say it is significant that the company is continuing with an apprenticeship recruitment programme which saw 120 young people join in September 2017, and which is now into its seventh year.

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However, the scale of the redundancies has drawn speculation that Babcock is expecting future pain as Government defence spending is slashed.

The story so far

In November 2017, Babcock was booted out of the FTSE 100 – and replaced by takeaway app Just Eat – as investors quaked at the prospect of potential defence spending cuts by Westminster.

Rob Miguel, Plymouth-based district secretary of the Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions (CSEU), said it was expected Babcock would protect “core” staff while “streamlining” the business.

“Any business has to look at the skills it needs to go forward,” he said. “It’s not reducing the business but expanding with the right people. It’s looking at what they need that is essential. The core will look the same.